Guest Wireless, Now Available

Can’t put your new holiday gift gadget down? Now you can use your new iPod touch, iPad or netbook on the district’s wireless network. The Penn Manor IT Department has recently launched guest wireless service for students, staff and district visitors. Guest wireless is available at Penn Manor High School, both middle schools and the district office. Guest wireless will be expanded to select areas in our elementary buildings in the near future.

In additional to the extensive technical work required to bring this service to our academic community, the district has also reworked polices to help balance security with open access to Internet resources. Specifically, the PM School Board approved new technology policies giving principals and teachers discretion on how and when student personal technology devices may be utilized in classrooms. In short, teachers now have the flexibility to permit students to use personal iPods, netbooks and laptops for appropriate instructional activities and projects.

The guest wireless network receives student-level, filtered Internet access only. No password is required. After selecting the guest network on your personal iPod, iPad or laptop, you will need to open a web browser, agree to the terms of service and enter your email address and name. Note that the guest network will not permit connections to internal Penn Manor printers or private file servers such as Atlas. Also note that PM IT staff will not provide support for personal guest devices.

Teachers and staff should keep in mind that the guest network is not ideal for district issued laptops or mobile devices. Unlike our internal Comets wireless network, PM employees can’t use override accounts to reach staff-only websites such as YouTube and Twitter. Additionally, guest wireless is not given full priority on our network; it will be slow compared to our regular wired and wireless networks. For these reasons, district-owned laptops should stay off the guest network.